Happy 5th Birthday, Amelia Ann!

It's hard to believe that my baby is 5 today! Time is just going to fast, I'm not ready for 5. I'm so proud of this little person who brings so much joy to our lives. She has always had a strong sense of independence and is a very social being. The older she gets the more her personality shines through. I stand in awe as I watch her walk into a room of strangers, a smile beaming across her face, and walk right up to someone and strike up a conversation.  She will try anything at least once, she knows no fear. She has a grand imagination and demands attention for her performances, be it story telling, singing or dancing. She is an emotional girl who has a contagious laugh that can turn to tears a drop of a hat, then right back to laughter. She has a patience about her as she takes her sister by the hand and shows her the ropes. She is never as silly as when she is dancing around the house, making up words to songs with her daddy. She is such a hard worker whether it be doing chores, practicing writing or dancing. I am so proud that I get to be her mom and watch her grow and discover the world. Happy birthday, Amelia. May all your wishes come true!

Because I think my kid is super cute, I love photo/video documentation of the happenings in our world and I found a free app courtesy of a blog I follow I made a couple of videos to mark the occasion. Enjoy!

Pretty in Plaid Birthday Party

We had so much fun celebrating birthdays with a joint party for the girls this year!  We decided to try this after our poor December baby was having little attendance to her parties and the weather is so unpredictable in November that planning an outdoor party is a bit of a gamble. There is a small enough age gap that at (almost) 3 and 5 we can still get away with such things. Our girls are pretty easy to please, give them some cake, a few friends and some room to run and they are down to party.

We hosted a Pretty in Plaid bonfire in our backyard where we roasted hot dogs, served chili and corn bread, raced horses, popped candy-filled balloons and celebrated my babies . The girls had fun hiding in the tee pee, stuffing their faces with marshmallows. That, coupled with the much anticipated races on stick horses and running around with their friends, pleased the girls. The adults got to sit by the fire and sip seasonal ales while filling their bellies with food. There was a cake this year (not cupcakes, which according to Amelia are NOT cake and do not count on birthdays) and two very happy girls blowing out candles!

I got to put my craftiness to work this year making invitations, practice my hand lettering with the envelopes (long live handwritten letters!), sew a little with the tricky tee pee and I even did a little paper mache for the confetti eggs. It was just enough handmade details to make my heart happy!

Pigeon Party! Second Birthday

I'm in the mood for a hot dog party!

Have you met the sassy pigeon from the pages of Mo Willems books? If you haven't, you are seriously missing out. Whether he is trying to drive the bus, stay up late or just eat HIS hot dog he never fails to entertain. But be warned: it may be hard not to give into the pigeon because, "What's five minutes in the grand scheme of things?"

When we began reading books to Amelia she quickly became attached to the pigeon and requested we read the books to her all the time. We too loved the pigeon and his antics so it was an easy pick as the theme for her second birthday.

I used my cutting and pasting skills to put together some handmade invitations to invite our friends and family.

Ice Cream Shoppe 3rd Birthday

 

It's official, I have a three year old! We celebrated last weekend with friends and family and had a great time. My favorite part of the whole day was seeing how excited Amelia was to blow out her candles. She stood on her chair in front of everyone (her favorite place to be) and sang "Happy birthday to me!" and blew out her candles. I had to relight them so everyone else could sing to her, silly girl!

 

It's hard to say who had a better time with the sundae station because the adults were just as excited about it as the kids were! Amelia has told everyone who has asked her about her party about the toppings she chose, nothing else. I think that is a good sign that it was a success.

 

 

Birth Story:Amelia Ann

After continuously telling myself over the past three years that I would sit down and write the story of Amelia’s birth so that when she’s old enough to care I can recount for her the torture that is child birth I’m finally doing it. I actually would sit down to write it and get distracted by the many things that parenthood entails thinking to myself; ‘it’s not like you’re going to forget any of it. Who would forget something that big and important?” Oh, maybe me?

With a little collaboration with the husband here is the story of Amelia’s birth.

Be warned, this is not an ‘envision the flower opening, take a deep breath, and push out new life’ kind of story. I guess I’m an over sharer.

Ice Cream Shoppe Birthday Invitation

Party planning/prepping for Amelia's third birthday is well underway in our house and this week Amelia got to deliver the invitations. (I really like hand delivering the invitaions, Amelia gets to participate and I don't have to spend a fortune on postage!) Needless to say, she is very excited and we will probably be talking about her party every day now until it comes!

The theme for her party is ice cream shoppe so we made up these inviations to ask her friends and family to join us to celebrate.

To make these I used blank cardstock cards (5"x7") with coordinating envelopes from Hobby Lobby and some scrapbook paper (8.5"x11). These items frequently go on sale for half price, making this project realtively inexpensive.

Using Word, I printed the front of the card reading: Amelia's Ice Cream Shoppe 2.5" from the top, to ensure it would show under the awning.
Next I cut a piece of the pink stripped scrapbook paper down to a 3"x5" rectangle, stripes running vertically.
Folding in 1/2" at the top and 1/2" at the bottom I created an awning.
Next I cut one edge to make it scalloped using a pair of scissors (they have fancy scissors that can do this for you if you don't wan to free hand.)
Using a glue stick, glue the non-scalloped fold to the top of the card, folded edge to the top. This will make the awning stick out.
To make the ice cream cone I used solid colored cardstock, cut to a triangle, and a brown marker to make the cross hatches.
I topped it with three scoops of ice cream (also using solid color cardstock) to represent Amelia turning three and used left over scrapbook paper to add a couple stripes across the bottom of the card.
For the interior I typed the party information into Word and printed them onto the stripped paper, four per page. Then all I had to do was cut them down and glue them into the card.

I'm trying something new with this invitation; using 'regregts only' rather than 'RSVP'. Perhaps this will allow people to feel more comfortable with declining the invitation and I will be able to get an accurate guest count? I guess we shall see!

Tiny Dancer

Amelia started dance class today. After weeks of anticipation it was finally here and she could hardly contain her enthusiasm as we got her ready for her class. She told me all about her tights and leotard as we put them on and she let me put her hair into a ponytail without a fight.  She tucked her dance shoes into the bag I made for her and stood at the door anxious to leave. I was more emotional than I expected when she told me in the car that I couldn't go to dance class that I could just drop her off. (We had discussed this prior to class but she was way too okay with it!) My baby isn't a baby anymore, she's a little girl. A very independent little girl.

I got to stand outside the class for the first few minutes and watch her as the class began. I had a nervous excitement for her as I watched her for the first time in a social situation like this without me by her side. I had a cheesy grin plastered on my face as she looked around uncertain of what she was doing, but not intimidated in the least.

The dance teacher was great with the girls, using nursery rhymes to associate the movements with the words of the songs and quickly changing from movement to movement to hold their attention. Amelia watched her wide-eyed as she took in everything she was saying.

I stood there looking through the window at this beautiful, confident little girl holding the bar and watching herself in the mirror and I couldn't help but be so filled with pride. My tiny dancer.

I retreated to the waiting room and waited until the class was over. When I came back to pick her up she ran to me grinning from ear to ear. She was so proud of herself for earning her treat from the teacher and so excited about her class. As we waited to talk to the teacher (she's only in the class on a trial basis because she's younger than the rest) she wrapped her arms around my neck and said, "I missed you momma." The kid melts my heart.

Oh Pepto...

Saturday morning started earlier than I wanted, so as little faces peered over the side of the bed into my tired face I pleaded with the husband for five more minutes. Being the great husband he is, he obliged and took the girls to change diapers, use the potty and get some breakfast. About 30 minutes later he climbed into bed with me and told me it was time to get up. We laid there for a couple minutes and finally I worked up the energy to kick my legs off the bed and get up. Andy was a couple steps ahead of me when I heard:

"What is in your mouth?!"

I looked down at Amelia who was spewing a pink substance onto the floor leaving a trail as she ran (she had a feeling time out was in her future) As soon as I picked her up I could smell the cherry of Pepto Bismol tablets. She looked up at me with her big eyes and said, "Mmm, tastes good." (So honest, always!)

I tried to calm Andy down while I found the bottle to read the label. It didn't go over so well when it's warning label said to call poison control immediately. This was my first call to poison control so I was floored when no one would answer. I called my sister, who is a nurse, who started googling things online for me while I called back and this time said it was a life threatening emergency (it could have been for all I knew, that's why they should have answered the non-emergency line so I would know!)

After a few minutes on the phone with a really nice lady it was determined that she would be ok, but would probably have a stomach ache and weird colored bowel movements. She ate 7 tablets, but the amount of aspirin was low enough that there were no real risks.

We went through the whole day Saturday with no issues, no tummy aches, no issues using the bathroom, nothing. Hooray for a child with an iron stomach! (I credit the grass and other random substances we would find her eating when she was smaller-and even now)

Sunday rolled around and we went out to visit my parents for lunch. We arrived at their house before they did so we sat in their backyard and relaxed. That was until Amelia announced she needed to go to the bathroom. The house was locked so no potty. All I could think was I should have listened to Andy about the pull up this morning. I insisted she wear big girl panties because she hasn't been having accidents. And then I thought of my lack of planning since we had no back up clothes. Andy and I just looked at each other and then Andy turned to her and said, "You're going to potty outside."

To my shock Amelia was more than happy to give it a go. Afterwards we reinforced that it was not something we would make a habit of, only if we were camping or it was an emergency and mommy and daddy said it was ok. Two minutes later she was back to insisting she needed to go potty. We told her to wait, thinking she just wanted to go outside again, and didn't pay much attention.

Then it happened.

I heard a little voice ask, "That's not my potty, Mom?  That's not my poop?"

I looked up to see what appeared to be mud in her hand. As I looked a minute longer I saw a trail down her legs, onto her shoes, and onto the back porch of my dad's house. Just like the lady warned, strange colored poop. Black, like potting soil.

I was cracking up laughing as I used a garden hose to clean off my child and the porch. My husband took it like a champ, he has come a long way from his days of becoming squeamish at the littlest things and over reacting to situations out of our control!

My parents showed up as we were turning off the hose so we relived our experience, an unapologetic face looking at them as we told the story. Guaranteed to be one that will no doubt be retold when she's older to embarrass her.


And for those of you that are concerned, the pepto has been moved out of little hands reach. Childproof means nothing!

Let Your Imagination Run Wild

After spending entirely too long on the phone, bouncing back in froth between calling the hospital and the insurance company, I'm convinced that Marinn will be five and we will still be getting bills from when she was born.

Frustrated and seriously lacking patience I turned to quite Amelia who had come into the room for the umpteenth time and found her with a card in one hand, a pen in the other, and a phone sandwiched between her cheek and shoulder.

"Can I have your number? Ok bye. Let me get my checkbook. Hello? I have a baby Marinn. Have a good day. Let me write on my paper. Thank you."

She was busy scribbling down things on her imaginary paper, chatting away when she noticed me watching and set it down to come ask me to hold her. How could I resist that sweet little face looking at me?

She is getting so big, as is apparent with her ever-growing imagination. Within moments she is caught up in a story of her own having hilarious conversations between dolls, people on the phone, or retelling stories from visits with her cousins. I love watching as she and daddy build things with her legos and suddenly three blocks stacked together is a rocket ship on its way to the moon to get cheese and when a plate becomes her kitchen as she makes soups and noodles (her specialties)

It may be a small thing, but in the world of a two year old it's big. More evidence that my baby is getting older. I can already tell that the pages of my "Things My Kids Said" journal will be filling fast with things like:

"Christopher pushed me down in the grass. I said, 'That's not nice, Chris!' I see him and I pushed him in the grass and he cried and cried like a baby. That's silly. Yee haw cowboy." -Amelia 8/7/12, first time replaying a real event and adding her own ending

Pictures: Six Month and Two and a Half Year

After taking a few deep breaths and deleting a ton of terrible pictures from the disaster of a photo shoot, I found a few that may make it into a frame. When we bought my new camera I assured Andy it meant not spending absurd amounts of money taking the girls to get their pictures done. In my head I could picture my little angels sitting patiently, posed perfectly, as I figured out how to work the camera and the angles to get the good shots. The reality is that I can only take decent pictures outside because I'm clueless on lighting and my kids would rather play and eat grass than sit still to take pictures.

Still, when I look at these sweet little faces, I gush with pride. My little grass eating girls are growing and changing right before my eyes!